The Art of Debugging with GDB and DDD

Book Description

Debugging is crucial to successful software development, but
even many experienced programmers find it challenging.
Sophisticated debugging tools are available, yet it may be
difficult to determine which features are useful in which
situations. The Art of Debugging is your guide to making the
debugging process more efficient and effective.

The Art of Debugging illustrates the use three of the
most popular debugging tools on Linux/Unix platforms: GDB, DDD, and
Eclipse. The text-command based GDB (the GNU Project Debugger) is
included with most distributions. DDD is a popular GUI front end
for GDB, while Eclipse provides a complete integrated development
environment.

In addition to offering specific advice for debugging with each
tool, authors Norm Matloff and Pete Salzman cover general
strategies for improving the process of finding and fixing coding
errors, including how to:

Inspect variables and data structures

Understand segmentation faults and core dumps

Know why your program crashes or throws exceptions

Use features like catchpoints, convenience variables, and
artificial arrays

Avoid common debugging pitfalls

Real world examples of coding errors help to clarify the
authors' guiding principles, and coverage of complex topics like
thread, client-server, GUI, and parallel programming debugging will
make you even more proficient. You'll also learn how to prevent
errors in the first place with text editors, compilers, error
reporting, and static code checkers.

Whether you dread the thought of debugging your programs or
simply want to improve your current debugging efforts, you'll find
a valuable ally in The Art of Debugging.